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Coffee Stain Studios is a developer based in Skövde, Sweden and creator of the blockbuster game, Goat Simulator. We recently sat down with the CEO of Coffee Stain Studios, Anton Westbergh, to learn how an idea to build a game about a destructive goat could lead to over 7 million paid downloads worldwide since its creation, and become one of the top grossing games in Amazon Underground since launching in August of 2015.

The Beginnings of Goat Simulator

Coffee Stain Studios started in 2010 with 9 students from the University of Skövde working on a game project that would become the prototype for their first hit PC game, Sanctum. In 2014, during a company brainstorm about their next game, the idea to build Goat Simulator was born. After posting a YouTube video of an early prototype of Goat Simulator that received 3 million views in the first week, Anton and his team knew they had created something customers were going to love. This has proven to be true, as 2 years later, Goat Simulator, which can be played for free with no in-app purchases on Amazon Underground, has topped the charts on almost all major platforms.

“We were hesitant to put Goat Simulator in Amazon Underground because when you have a really good, working monetization model, it’s scary to move into a new platform and try something different. We worried that this would affect our sales on the other platforms, but it has not. It’s definitely a platform that has worked for us and we’re going to have other titles in Underground in the future.”

Downloads Increase

Goat Simulator, which customers normally have to pay money to download or play, was made available as a free download, with no in-app purchases through Amazon Underground in August of 2015, and since the launch, customers have flocked to the game causing a 326% increase in the downloads on Amazon in the first 5 months. Amazon Underground is attracting new users to games like Goat Simulator with the promise of 100% free content, and developers like Coffee Stain Studios are generating revenue for every minute these customers play their game.

Revenue Grows

Goat Simulator has been one of the highest grossing Amazon Underground games since launching in August of 2015. When Coffee Stain Studios made their game available in Amazon Underground, they more than doubled their revenue on Amazon in the first 5 months, and in December, they made more revenue in Amazon than on any other Android platform.

”For us, evaluating new platforms is very important, and Underground has been one example showing it can be worth it for us! If you have a product that does well in general, moving it onto new platforms is the way to go!”

Customers Play More

Not only are more customers downloading the game, but they are playing Goat Simulator for longer periods of time. Five months after launching Goat Simulator, the average session length on the Amazon Underground version is more than 148% higher than session lengths in the premium version before launch. The longer customers play Goat Simulator, the more Coffee Stain Studios gets paid in Amazon Underground.

“We’ve seen great download numbers, but what is maybe more interesting is that we’ve seen an increase in engagement compared to the premium app, and this means we make more revenue in the end.”

What Is Amazon Underground?

Amazon Underground is a new app for Android phones and is available on Fire tablets, which brings together the best of the Amazon mobile shopping app and adds a brand new benefit, over one thousand free versions of apps and games that normally cost money to download and play (including unlimited, free in-app items). Amazon Underground offers an innovative new monetization approach for developers. Amazon pays developers for every minute Underground customers use their app or game such that developers no longer have to charge customers for their apps for in-app items.